Intervention
Hypothetical and Observational Question Bank
Prepare alternative question forms — hypothetical, observational, and presupposition-based — before sessions where direct questions consistently produce 'I don't know.'
Hypothetical, observational, and presupposition-based questions reach information through indirect routes that bypass the “I don’t know” response. They work because they change the epistemic task: the client is asked to imagine rather than know, to report what they noticed rather than what they feel, or to engage with a question whose framing doesn’t offer “I don’t know” as a clean exit.
Build this bank before sessions with clients who have a consistent not-knowing pattern. After each session, note which forms worked and which produced further “I don’t know” responses.
Hypothetical and Observational Question Bank
Client (initials or identifier):
Conversion Set 1
The direct question that produced “I don’t know”:
Hypothetical version (changes the task from knowing to imagining):
“If you did know, what might you say?”
Your adapted version:
“As if” variant:
“If someone who knew you well were asked that question about you, what might they say?”
Your adapted version:
Future-oriented hypothetical:
“If we came back to that in six months and you’d figured it out, what do you think you might have found?”
Your adapted version:
Observational version (shifts from “how do you feel” to “what did you notice”):
Original question: Observational version:
Presupposition-based version (assumes the existence of the relevant experience rather than asking if it exists):
Original: “Do you know why you do that?” Presupposition: “What circumstances tend to be around when that happens?”
Your version:
Post-session notes — what worked:
Conversion Set 2
The direct question:
Hypothetical version:
Observational version:
Presupposition-based version:
Post-session notes:
Conversion Set 3
The direct question:
Hypothetical version:
Observational version:
Presupposition-based version:
Post-session notes:
Bank Summary
Question forms that consistently produce useful responses from this client:
Question forms that produce further “I don’t know” — avoid or adjust:
What this pattern tells you about the type of not-knowing operating:
Generated with Rapport7 — rapport7.com